Mail-in ballots go out in Orange County

by Susan Valot

Audio from this story

Share

File photo: A stack of vote-by-mail ballots sit on a table prior to being sorted at the San Francisco Department of Elections January 24, 2008 in San Francisco, California. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Some Orange County voters are getting their mail-in ballots this week for the November election.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters has already mailed out more than 580,000 ballots. They started going out in the middle of last week.

More than 200 people have already cast votes by mail in the county.

On top of the state propositions, Orange County voters will be casting votes for 21 local measures, including one in Anaheim that would ban red-light cameras and another in Westminster that would bring back Fourth of July firework stands.

Orange County still has more registered Republicans than any other party, but one of the tight races involves a seat held by a Democrat.

Loretta Sanchez is battling to keep her congressional seat in central Orange County. She’s only ahead of Republican opponent Van Tran by a few percentage points in a race that’s being watched closely by both parties nationwide.